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AN ANALYSIS OF THE HOTEL INDUSTRY IN CROATIA Applying Porter’s Diamond Model Ekaterina Litvinova Bachelor’s Thesis October 2011 Degree Programme in Facility Management School of Tourism, Catering and Domestic Services

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ANALYSIS OF HOTEL INDUSTRY IN CROATIAApplying Porter’s Diamond Model
Ekaterina Litvinova
Bachelor’s Thesis October 2011
Degree Programme in Facility Management School of Tourism, Catering and Domestic Services
DESCRIPTION
Author(s)
Date 17102011
Pages 66
Language English
Confidential No
Title
AN ANALYSIS OF THE HOTEL INDUSTRY IN CROATIA: APPLYING PORTER’S DIAMOND MODEL
Degree Programme
Tutor(s)
Abstract
Croatia is a country, located in the very center of Europe, possessing diverse and pure Mediterranean nature across the long coast and thousands of islands. The climate is mild and from the first glance the country looks like an attractive spot for travel. Yet, the tourism in the country is on a premature, underdeveloped level. Hotels are scarce and in many cases sub-standard. The entertainment, catering and other tourism-related industries are all in their infant stage of development. The objective of the research was to study the reasons behind the slow development of the hotel industry in Croatia. Because very little research had been done addressing this issue, the author was left to follow an exploratory method. Thus, the goal was to collect different pieces of relevant information from the available sources, including the author’s own experience as an employee of one hotel in Croatia, and analyze and present them in a way, which would allow for further research. The Porter’s Diamond model was chosen as a framework for the analysis and the presentation of the results. During the course of the research, the author attempted to study and report on as many different factors, suggested by the Diamond Model, as possible. As a result, the author uncovered a set of different negative factors affecting the industry, which mixed together to form a closed circle with no apparent way out. The author came to a conclusion that the Croatian government was the major contributor to that situation and the future of the hotel industry would heavily depend on the governmental policies and their implementation.
Keywords
Miscellaneous
1
CONTENTS
2.2 Porter’s Diamond Model as analytical framework .......................................... 6
2.3 Primary data collection and reporting ............................................................ 8
3 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ................................................................................ 10
3.2 Porter’s Diamond model ............................................................................... 14
4 RESEARCH: Results & Facts ................................................................................... 19
4.1 Key facts ......................................................................................................... 19
4.2 Factor conditions ........................................................................................... 22
4.3 Demand conditions ........................................................................................ 29
4.5 Related and supporting industries ................................................................ 44
5 DISCUSSION: Conclusion & Further Research ...................................................... 47
5.1 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 47
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 53
APPENDICIES ................................................................................................................ 56
2
FIGURES
FIGURE 1. Alternating point of view method by Routio (2007) ..................................... 6
FIGURE 2. Alternating point of view method adapted to the research ......................... 8
FIGURE 3. View of Benidorm in 1960s ......................................................................... 12
FIGURE 4. View of modern Benidorm .......................................................................... 12
FIGURE 5. Porter’s Diamond Model by Porter 1990 .................................................... 15
FIGURE 6. Location of Croatia in Europe by APIU (2009a) ........................................... 20
FIGURE 7. Major Croatian cities by APIU (2009b) ........................................................ 21
FIGURE 8. Motorways in Croatia by neretva.info (2011) ............................................. 24
FIGURE 9. Croatian Natural gas grid by APIU (2009c) .................................................. 25
FIGURE 10. FDI inflow in Croatia 1993-2009. Croatian National Bank (2011b) ........... 26
FIGURE 11 FDI inflow in Croatia by country 1999-2009 (Croatian National Bank
2011c) ........................................................................................................................... 27
FIGURE 12. Top-10 countries visiting Croatia in 2009. Data by MINT 2011a .............. 30
FIGURE 13. TOP-10 countries visiting Bulgaria in 2009. (MEET 2011) ......................... 32
FIGURE 14. Breakdown of hotels across the coastal counties in 2009. Data by MINT
2009 .............................................................................................................................. 40
FIGURE 15. Hotel industry of Croatia through Porter’s Diamond Model .................... 49
TABLES
TABLE 1. Major tourism indicators in Croatia by MINT 2005, 2010 ............................ 33
TABLE 2. Breakdown of accommodation in Croatia 2009 by CBS 2010....................... 35
TABLE 3. Number of beds by type of accommodation, 1985-2009 by CBS 2010 ........ 36
TABLE 4. Comparison of a Private Accommodation vs. a Family Hotel ....................... 38
3
1 CROATIA AS A TOURIST DESTINATION
Since the end of the War of Independence from Serbia (1991-1995) and the end of
membership in Yugoslavia, the last 15 years have shown a robust economic growth
and political stability for Croatia. Nowadays, Croatia is the leading country of the
region (after Slovenia) in terms of economic development and standard of living. This
has not been overseen by foreign investors. Since the beginning of EU accession talks
in 2005 the annual FDI inflows rose from 950 million to 4.2 billion into the country.
Croatia is conveniently located in the heart of Europe. It takes less than two hours by
plane to reach Croatia from most of the EU countries. The pure and diverse
Mediterranean nature across the 1,770 km long coast with 1,185 islands makes the
country a tremendous spot for different types of tourism. The country has several
UNESCO protected natural and cultural sites. There are numerous nationally
protected parks of nature, including unique mountain ranges, mountain lakes,
waterfalls and islands.
According to Croatian Ministry of Tourism, the tourism sector of the country’s
economy contributes to some 20% of its GDP (Miid 2007). This makes tourism one
of the most significant industries in Croatia.
However, hotels in Croatia are lagging behind. Though Croatia has already reached
pre-war level of tourist traffic, these days hotels account for merely 12.5 % of the
total supply of tourist accommodation in the country. There are 55 beds in hotels per
1 km of the Croatian coast, which is a very low rate if compared to well-developed
tourism destinations, for example, Spain (235 beds/km). Surprisingly, hotels are
scarce and unpopular in this tourism-driven country. Due to this, not much research
has been done in the field of the hotel business.
In general, the slow development of Croatian hotels can be explained by the fact that
the process of redesigning the nation from socialist to democratic structure shall
apparently take some time. This generic explanation makes no practical sense
though. This is why the author undertook to make a study of the hotel industry of
Croatia and tried to discover the reasons behind the slow development. The research
question of the work became:
4
What is the current level of development of the hotel industry in Croatia?
This was accompanied by a sub-question:
What are the reasons behind the slow development?
The goal of this research was to collect relevant material, analyze it and provide an
answer to the research question. As the author did not have any previous research
material to build on, it was decided that the framework for data collection as well as
the analysis had to be well-known among other researchers. It was important to
make sure that other researchers could use the collected and analyzed data as their
starting point for further research. This way, this exploratory research was expected
to contribute to the understanding of Croatia as an environment for hotel business.
Porter’s Diamond model was used as a framework for analysis of the collected data,
because it was specifically developed for analyzing industries in the modern,
globalized world. The secondary data consisted of the collection and revision of the
official governmental statistics (CROSTAT, Ministry of Tourism of Croatia). The
primary data was collected during a set of short interviews, which were conducted
with professionals of the hotel industry and other related industries. Also a reflection
of the author’s working experience in one of Croatian hotels was included in the
primary data.
The author of this research was motivated by the fact that she wanted to share her
own working experience in this field. She strived to organize the knowledge gained
and other available data into one report. The written report could be useful for
further research and help to understand Croatia and its hotel industry in particular.
5
2.1 Exploratory research method
The current work was chosen to be carried out in a form n exploratory research.
This methodology seemed to the author as the only possible choice. As Kotler et al.
(2004, 345) explained that exploratory research in marketing is a type of research,
aimed to “gather preliminary information that will help to better define problems
and suggest hypothesis”. The fact that the country with such a beautiful nature and
mild climate had such a poor and underdeveloped tourism industry seemed to be a
paradox. To get things even more complicated and shady, almost no literature could
be found that described the hotel industry in Croatia. Different fragments of
information were dispersed across different sources, but no single significant effort
to address the problem could be found. That is why in order to get an idea of what
was going on with the hotel industry, one sensible way was to start gathering all
available and relevant information in one place. Then the information could be
analyzed and presented in a systematic manner, prepared for further exploration
and enhanced understanding of the issue.
The same approach is supported by Routio (2007). He explains that it is usual that
you start an exploratory research by gathering as much information about the
objects as possible, and postpone the task of cutting away unnecessary data until
you get a better picture about what is necessary. He continues by admitting that any
object can be looked at from different viewpoints, for example, from the viewpoint
of an established science. Each viewpoint can change the direction of the research.
He explains this as a method of alternating point of view, depicted in Figure 1.
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FIGURE 1. Alternating point of view method by Routio (2007)
In case of analyzing the hotel industry, it made sense to try to find some well-
established economic model for analyzing industries. If the model could be found,
that would provide a clear framework or standpoint from which the author would
take a look at the hotel industry of Croatia. Using such model as a viewpoint would
also make the result of the work more uniform, understandable and make it easy for
other researchers to build on its results.
2.2 Porter’s Diamond Model as analytical framework
It was decided to use Porter’s Diamond Model as a standpoint from which the author
of this research would take a look at the hotel industry in Croatia. Porter’s model is
considered by many economists to be one of the most up-to-date and relevant
models. The model strives to explain why particular industries are successful in
particular countries. It is well-known that this question has been around quite a long
period of time and many famous scientists tried to investigate it. Starting from Adam
Smith’s Absolute Advantage and Comparative Advantage by David Ricardo in the
18th century, many bright economists have made their contribution to the
development of the modern economic theory. However, since then the rapid pace of
the development of the world economy has been the major obstacle to designing an
accurate and comprehensive model enough. At this point of time, the Porter’s theory
seems to be the most up-to-date and taking into account the most of the recent
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changes including the phenomenon of globalization of trade and emergence of
multinational enterprises (MNEs). Porter’s Diamond Model provides a
comprehensive framework for analysis of different forces and factors, which
predetermine nation’s success in different industries.
It is worth mentioning that the Porter’s model is very detailed. Porter builds his
theory on analysis of numerous different factors, which affect how companies
behave within a given industry and country. He puts a major emphasis on the level of
competition between companies, and how the government and other external
factors shape it. These external factors are numerous. According to Porter (1990,
xxv), in his theory he tried to capture the full complexity and richness of actual
competition, rather than to abstract from it. This seems to be the reason why the
1990 edition of the book “The Competitive Advantage of Nations”, in which Porter
first introduced the Diamond model and theory behind it, was around 900 pages
long. This means that the author of this research could not attempt to embrace the
model in its full depth and with all of its numerous details. However, the author
could make her own contribution by filling the parts of the model with the
information she could collect from different sources, including her own personal
experience and experience of relevant practitioners of the hotel industry.
The result of such methodology was expected to be a collection of industry-related
information, assembled, analyzed and presented in a well-established format
(Porter’s Diamond Model) and ready for further improvement and analysis by other
researchers (see Figure 2).
8
FIGURE 2. Alternating point of view method adapted to the research
2.3 Primary data collection and reporting
During the summer and the autumn of 2010, the author was working as a
receptionist in Hotel Kolovare, Zadar. This experience exposed the author to a reality
of the daily operations of a medium sized hotel, which is located on the coastal part
of Croatia (see pp.41-43). The experience gained allowed the author to assess the
overall quality of the services and discover what the situation in the hotel “behind
the curtains” was. The author could see from the inside how the hotel was operated,
what the corporate culture was and, finally, what the reasons behind that were.
It is fair to say that the study of the situation in only one hotel could not be
generalized to apply to other hotels. That is why the author undertook a set of short
interviews with a group of different practitioners, related to the hotel industry. These
were hotel managers of different level, as well as other professionals, like real-estate
developers and members of local chambers of economy. There were nine people
interviewed: seven hotel managers, one real-estate expert and one governmental
officer from a chamber of commerce.
9
These interviews were supposed to underpin the major concerns of the chosen
practitioners about the state of the hotel industry and give them a chance to express
their opinions about what was the most significant factor for the development of the
hotel industry in Croatia. The summary of the interviews is provided in Appendix 1.
When the ideas of the respondents are used in the text, there are corresponding
references to the summary. The ideas of the interviewees were used as a stepping
stone for analysis of each component of Diamond Model (e.g. factor conditions,
demand conditions etc.).
The hotel industry as a part of the tourism system
In order to be able to analyze the hotel industry of Croatia, it is important, first, to
define who the industry participants are, what their products are and what the major
relevant issues in the industry are. Thus, it is necessary to introduce the concept of
tourism in a broader sense. Many authors tried to come up with a definition of
tourism; however, all of the attempts seem to have come to a different conclusion.
Sharpley (2009, 7) claims it to be an unrealistic task to devise a single, all-embracing
definition for tourism. However, there is one attribute of tourism that has always
been associated with it. It is the fact that tourism, by definition, involves travel
(op.cit.). And the reasons, why people leave their habitual day-to-day environments,
are astonishingly numerous. People make business trips, go on sun-sea-sand
holidays, involve in educational tourism, just to name a few. Moreover, Sharpley
introduces another group of travelers, usually not associated with tourism. This
group includes different kinds of people from nomads, refugees and temporary
immigrants to diplomats, border officials or members of military forces.
Sharpley (2009) also continues:
Although tourism and travel is a social activity, that activity is to a great extent dependent upon the provision of goods and services that facilitate people’s travel and their activities at the destination. In fact, as long as people have been able to travel they have required a variety of services, such as lodging, food and refreshments… (p.9)
This way the hotel industry can be viewed as a part of the complex tourism system,
which comprises 4 key elements:
The tourism generating region: the region that is the source of the tourists and where significant sectors of the tourism production system (for example, airlines, tour operators, travel retailers, international accommodation providers) may be located or based.
The tourism destination region: the region that attracts tourists, which experiences the consequences of tourism development and where the primary elements of production system (hotels, attractions, facilities) are located.
The transit region: the region or route a tourist travels through to reach the destination.
11
The environment within which the tourism generating, transit and destination regions are located and with which tourists interact. (Op. cit. p.12)
Such a complex look at the tourism system is necessary to understand the nature of
the hotel industry and its specific problems. The hotel industry cannot be viewed
separately from other industries constituting the whole tourist experience.
Tourism and its impact on the environment
One of the most recognized problems of tourism is its impact on the cultural and
natural environments of the target country. As long as tourism in many countries is
heavily relying on natural and cultural resources, these are also the ones which suffer
the most. According to Saxena (2008), at many destinations, nature is ruined after
just a few decades of exploitation. Tourists are deserting impoverished destinations
to seek new unspoiled places to travel to. (p.261)
For example, Spain paid a high price for its loose policy in controlling tourism
development. Especially, this concerns a liberal policy in the construction of hotels
and other types of buildings on the coast. As a consequence the once pure and green
coastal towns were turned into Manhattan - like crowded streets, which ruined the
native Mediterranean landscape and severely damaged the nature. Figure 3 and
Figure 4 illustrates this phenomenon. Back in the 1950s, Benidorm was a small
agricultural village, and these days it is a skyscraper city with more than 60 million
tourist overnights per year (more than in the whole Croatia). There are over 150
hotels with 40,000 beds, more than 2,000 shops, 86 banks. (Huete, 2009.)
12
FIGURE 4. View of modern Benidorm
Unfortunately, Spain is not the only example of uncontrolled development of
tourism. Sharpley (2009, 172-173), also reports that the coasts of Cyprus suffered
from a similar development.
“Leakage” of generated foreign exchange
Another important problem, which comes with the development of tourism, is that
in many cases the returns, which are generated by tourism, are going outside of the
destination country. According to Saxena (2008, 12), the World Bank estimates that
13
55% of tourist spending in developing countries leaks back to developed countries,
while other studies indicate the figure may be as high as 90%. Apparently, a
significant part of spending, like agency fees or air transportation fees, insurances,
happens in a tourist generating region. But given the globalized economy and
freedom to operate in almost any country, a range of multinational hotel chains
emerged (Starwood, Melia etc.). Competing against strong multinational brand
names should be rather hard for local hotels, which leaves the citizens of destination
region outside of a lucrative hotel business.
Natural resources as a “free” startup resource
According to Sharpley (2009, 15)
Tourism is frequently based on existing natural or man-made attraction, such as beaches, wilderness areas or heritage sites. Thus, tourism may be considered to have low “start-up” costs when compared with other industries.
Conclusion
To sum up, tourism, as well as the hotel industry, is a double-edged sword. On one
hand, with development of tourism come new sources of employment and income
for residents of destination countries, which normally lead to rise of the overall
standard of living. On the other hand, uncontrolled development of tourism can lead
to negative, sometimes catastrophic consequences, deteriorating natural resources
without improving a standard of living for citizens of a destination country. This
means that nowadays, governments, having seen mistakes of the past, tend to be
more careful with development of tourism. This should have a direct affect on the
hotel industry, because construction of new hotels and other types of
accommodation is a strong catalyst of tourism.
Another peculiarity about the hotel industry is its strong reliance on other industries,
like entertainment or food, sports; just to name a few, which together affect the
“whole” tourist experience. The total experience by definition has to be compelling
and make people want to leave their homes and travel. If these additional services
are poorly developed, the hotel industry will most likely be also lagging behind.
However, as Sharpley (2009, 15) noticed tourism utilizes natural, “free”
infrastructure. This makes the tourism system balance between these “free” and
man-made types of infrastructure. For instance, the beauty of the nature can offset
14
the poor development of hotel or entertainment industry and vice versa. This way,
the special feature of the hotel industry is that its main product (temporary
accommodation) is just a part of what forms the overall tourist experience.
Therefore, during an analysis of a hotel industry it is important to pay attention to
what M. Porter calls “supporting and related industries”.
3.2 Porter’s Diamond model
About Michael Porter
Michael E. Porter is a leading authority on competitive strategy, the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states, and regions, and the application of competitive principles to social problems such as health care, the environment, and corporate responsibility.
Professor Porter is generally recognized as the father of the modern strategy field, as has been identified in a variety of rankings and surveys as the world’s most influential thinker on management and competitiveness.
He is the author of 18 books and over 125 articles. (Harvard Business School 2011.)
See the background information about the model in Appendix 2.
The Diamond
The model itself is depicted in a form a diamond with four facets. Each facet
represents a major factor, directly affecting the level of productivity and, therefore,
overall competitiveness of an industry. There are two addition entities, which can
affect each facet, namely: Government and Chance. (See Figure 5.)
15
FIGURE 5. Porter’s Diamond Model by Porter 1990
1. Factor conditions. The nation’s position in factors of production, such as skilled labour or infrastructure, necessary to compete in a given industry.
2. Demand Conditions. The nature of home demand for the industry’s product or service.
3. Related and supporting industries. The presence or absence in the nation of supplier industries and related industries, which are internationally competitive.
4. Firm Strategy, Structure and Rivalry. The conditions in the nation governing how companies are created, organized and managed, and the nature of domestic rivalry.
Porter 1990, 71
Each facet of the Diamond represents a comprehensive set of particular attributes of
a nation. Both individually and as a system they are responsible for shaping the
environment, in which local firms from a particular industry operate and compete. As
you could have already noticed, some of the facets of the Diamond resemble major
ideas of the economic theories of the past two and a half centuries. Factor conditions
facet is a direct descendant of Ricardian ideas of the Comparative Advantage as well
as A. Smith’s Absolute advantage. Demand Conditions facet resembles the thoughts
of R. Vernon and his “product cycle” model and important role of demand
conditions. The rest of the facets as well as the other two crucial entities
(Government and Chance) were introduced by Porter in attempt to capture the big
16
picture and make the model comply with the latest major developments in the
world.
The author assumes that for the purpose of this research the Diamond Model can be
described from the standpoint of a hotel industry. While in his book Porter goes into
numerous details and cases applicable to various industries, the author thinks that it
will be more productive to focus only on the hotel industry.
Factor Conditions
These are commonly called by economists as factors of production and represent
merely the inputs necessary for everyday operations. In case of hotel industry, these
are:
and its cost
length and condition of the coast
Knowledge resources – general stock of scientific, technical and market
knowledge relevant to the hotel industry. Availability and quality of relevant
statistical databases, measuring tourist arrivals/nights etc. Availability of
industrial non-profit organizations, carrying out market research of current
tourist demand conditions etc.
Capital resources – availability of capital both local and international. Attitude
and interest of investor towards the hotel industry
Infrastructure – first of all, air transportation. Road and maritime
transportation. Electricity, water, sewage, natural gas supply. Health care
system is rather important factor for tourism. Overall development of real-
estate, national parks and other cultural institutions.
Demand conditions
This facet represents an analysis of foreign and domestic demand conditions.
According to Porter (1990, 86), home demand conditions have influence in almost
every industry. However, what concerns the hotel industry, it is the foreign demand
17
conditions, which have the major influence. On the other hand, home demand
conditions pay certain role in other related industries, such as sports and recreational
facilities, like golf, football stadiums etc.
In the Diamond Model Porter pays significant attention to product industries. He
describes various important characteristics in demand for products, which could be
exported and distributed around the world. In case of a hotel industry, which is a
service industry attached to particular geographical location, most of the demand
characteristics described by Porter are of minor importance. In this sense, what really
matters for a hotel industry is how many foreigners choose Croatia and Croatian
hotels in particular as their travel destination.
Related and supporting industries
This facet represents another determinant of national advantage in an industry and
stands for the availability in the nation of supplier and related industries, which are
internationally competitive. As has already been mentioned major product of a hotel
industry is a part of the whole tourist experience (see pp. 10-11). Moreover, seldom
are hotels the reason, why tourists choose to come to a particular destination.
Therefore, a hotel industry is more of a supplementary type and it relies heavily on
the development of other parts of tourism system.
According to Cooper (2003, 22), the supply side of the tourism industry includes
accommodation, transport, agency services, food and souvenirs. In addition,
Williams, Bruswell (2003, 5) argue that there is a close relationship between leisure
and tourism industries. He explains that tourism has three broad categories of
purpose:
2. Other tourism, including educational and health reasons
3. Business, including conferences, meetings and exhibitions
Williams et. al (2003) continue that context of leisure activities can range from
purpose-built facilities such as leisure centers and theatres to resources such as
national parks and urban open spaces. Other two categories include facilities like
spas, health centers, conference halls, business centers and concert halls. (p. 5)
18
Firm strategy structure and rivalry
The last, but not least, determinant of national competitive advantage in an industry
is the nature of the ways firms are organized. This includes typical structure, goals
and methods of running local companies and rivalry between them. This determinant
is relying on cultural and historical background of a nation.
Regarding a hotel industry, this facet of the Diamond would include analysis of
managerial abilities and style, their relationship with employees and owners as well.
Another important factor for analysis would be the level of competition between the
hotels.
Government and its role
Porter (1990, xiii) stressed the importance of government and its ability to influence
all facets of the Diamond. Indeed, it is the government that creates policies and
governs how the natural resources are exploited, how firms interact within industries
and how businesses are run in general.
One of the key relationships between government and the facets of the Diamond is
the governmental policy for preservation of natural resources. Government is free to
decide how the most suitable for tourism parts of a country will be developed.
History of 60s and 70s in Spain shows the importance of governmental control of the
real-estate industry and construction of hotels, in particular.
19
FIGURE 6. Location of Croatia in Europe by APIU (2009a)
Croatia has a very favorable location in the very heart of Europe. In two hours by
plane it can be reached from almost any European country.
21
FIGURE 7. Major Croatian cities by APIU (2009b)
Croatia can be broken into several parts for convenience. The coastal area includes
Istria (violet) and Dalmatia (green, red, yellow). The other two parts Central (blue,
Zagreb) and Slavonia (white, Osijek).
22
Physical resources
Croatia is famous for the beauty and diversity of its nature. The coastal part of
Croatia is about 1,700 km long and has a great number of bays and caves.
Croatia has a large archipelago of 1,185 islands; of which only 67 are inhabited.
Croatia is an ideal place for sailing. The high density of islands and bays is unique and
makes a sailing experience especially safe and pleasant. One is not going to find
anything similar across the whole Mediterranean. Maritime tourism attracts a
significant amount of visitors every year (see pp. 45-46).
Croatia is also rich in UNESCO protected locations like Plitvice Lakes and a range of
ancient cities, as well as numerous protected national parks of nature, such as
Kornati islands, Paklenica Mountain Park, Krka waterfalls and many others.
The climate is mild with 100 sunny days per year on the average. The summers on
the coast are quite hot with the average temperatures of 24-26 degrees Celsius.
There is a mountain range Velebit, stretching across the whole coast. The mountain
range preserves the coastal part of Croatia from cold winds and precipitation coming
from the north.
These robust natural resources make Croatia a very attractive destination for
tourists. Given the fact that the tourism industry is still underdeveloped in Croatia,
and the country is not yet as popular as Spain or France, many celebrities choose it as
their holiday destination. Among them is Bill Gates, who has been seen almost every
year in a small coastal town Skradin, where he comes on a rented yacht (Forbes
2010).
Most of the respondents considered the nature and the sea as the major attractions
for tourists (see Appendix 1, Q1). In their opinion, the nature of Croatia is still very
pure and intact.
Some of the hotel managers also thought that the climate causes a major problem of
profitability at their hotels (see Appendix 1, Q4-2,4,8 ; Q5-4,5 ). The fact is that the
bathing season in Croatia is comparatively short – from June to August. This is the
high tourist season. If compared to Greek or Cypriot hotels, Croatian resort hotels
23
experience a more adverse seasonality effect due to the climate. This issue is further
discussed in chapter 4.3 Demand Conditions.
Human resources
The total workforce in 2009 was estimated to be 1.7 million people (Business
monitor 2010, 39).
According to IMF (2011), unemployment in Croatia has risen from 8.3% in 2008 to
12.3% in 2010. However, according to the Croatian Central Bank (2011),
unemployment in 2010 was as high as 17.4%. On the other hand, such
unemployment rate does not seem to be unreasonably high, though. For example,
during the period 2000 – 2005 the average unemployment rate was 20.1% with the
average real GDP growth of 4.3%. (op.cit.)
In general, Croatian labour force is well-educated. Despite the high unemployment
rate, the proportion of young educated workforce is quite high. According to APIU
(2005, 11), 92.5% of Croatians between the ages of 20 and 24 had a completed their
secondary education, which was higher than in many EU countries.
Unfortunately, it was discovered during the research that most workers employed in
the hotel industry lack the appropriate education. In spite of the fact that the country
pays significant attention to education, the interviewed practitioners of the hotel
industry testified that the level of education of employees was still poor. One reason
for this may be the fact that the country had been isolated from the modern society
for quite a long period of time (Yugoslavia, 1991-1995 war). The Croatian hotel
industry is in its initial stage of development. Apparently, not much industry specific
experience and knowledge has been accumulated. One illustrative example of this is
included in the interviews with a manager from Le Meridien Lav (Starwood’s 5 stars
hotel near Split):
When we opened the hotel in 2006 we barely knew what our customers were expecting from us. Because we are a part of a multinational chain Starwood Hotels we were expected to deliver a certain level of service and stand up to the name of the brand. But back in 2006, our guests knew more about Starwood’s brand and quality standards than our entire management team and we had to learn from them.
24
Hence, it seems that Croatia has the necessary human resources for the expansion of
the hotel industry, but the industry specific knowledge (that can be obtained only
with expertise) has not yet accumulated.
Infrastructure (public utilities)
There is a modern toll highway road crossing the whole country. Speed limits up to
130 km/h and excellent quality of the road surface allow to get from coastal Zadar to
the capital Zagreb in about two and a half hours by car.
The only two regions, which have not yet been reached by the highway, are short
part connecting Dubrovnik and Makarska and some roads on the Istrian peninsula.
FIGURE 8. Motorways in Croatia by neretva.info (2011)
During the last decade, the government of Croatia has been investing in
development of transportation system.
Gas grid covers most of the territory of Croatia. However, the largest part of Croatian
coast does not have a gas pipeline network.
25
Capital
The history of development of capitalism and market economy in Croatia is quite
short. Given the long period of Yugoslavia and devastating war with Serbia, it is quite
natural that Croatia does not have much of its own capital. However, starting in 2005
foreign direct investments started to inflow into the country. 2005 was the year,
when the country officially entered into EU accession negotiations.
26
FIGURE 10. FDI inflow in Croatia 1993-2009. Croatian National Bank (2011b)
As can be seen in Figure 10, the distinctive period of rapid growth was from 2004 to
2008. During this period annual FDI inflow had grown 4.4 times from 950 million euro
in 2004 to 4.2 billion euro in 2008. In the author’s opinion, this astonishing growth
was due to significant change in process of EU accession negotiations. The author
believes that the turning point happened in 2005, when Chief Prosecutor of
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) assessed that
“Croatia is now fully cooperating with ICTY”. When the announcement was published
official accession negotiations were launched.
On 10-th of June 2011 the EU Commission proposed to close last four chapters in
negotiations and 1-st of July 2013 was introduced as an estimate, when the country
will become a 28-th member of EU (Barosso 2011).
0,0
500,0
Million EUR
27
FIGURE 11 FDI inflow in Croatia by country 1999-2009 (Croatian National Bank 2011c)
In spite of this large gain in FDI, only 350 million EUR were invested by foreigners into
the hotel and restaurant sector from 2004 to 2008 (Croatian National Bank. 2011d).
According to Croatian Central Bank, this accounts to less than 3% of total amount of
FDI for the period from 2004 to 2008. It means that foreign investors are not
targeting hotel industry as a field of investment.
During the interviews, some of the respondents shared that they view the lack of
capital as one of the major obstacles to development of the hotel industry in Croatia
(see Appendix 1, Q4-1; Q5-2,7).
Role of the government
According to one of the respondents, the Croatian government has a very strict
policy towards development of the coastal part of the country (see Appendix 1, Q4-
1). The country has a centralized (inefficient) system for planning of land utilization.
According to the respondent, it is the long procedure of getting all the necessary
construction permits, which hinders the development of real-estate in Croatia,
including hotels. The government is trying to protect the coast from uncontrolled
development by any affordable means. This is why there are numerous strict laws
regarding the construction in the coastal areas. As it turns out, the inefficient
28
governmental system, inherited from Yugoslavia, seems to be working rather well in
restricting construction on the coast. However, while protecting the nature, the
system also makes it virtually impossible for investors to start new development
projects on the coast.
As a result, Croatia possesses lucrative natural resources, but almost entirely restricts
the use of these resources. Given the abundance of sad stories of mass tourism
development in countries like Spain, Bulgaria and Cyprus, this seems to be the only
appropriate strategy for a developing nation. With time Croatian governmental
system will improve and reach the point, when it will be ready to use its natural
resources in a sustainable way. Until then, all foreign investors will have to cope with
enormous amount of bureaucracy, strict laws and rules.
On the other hand, the government has been successfully investing in the country’s
transport infrastructure. The government seems to have a clear goal of making
Croatia one of the most easy-to-access locations in Europe. Given the country’s
favorable location and persistence of the government, this goal seems to be
realistically achievable. Moreover, Croatia is currently on its final step in the process
of accession into EU, which will further ease transportation.
29
4.3 Demand conditions
Croatia is known among Europeans as a destination for summer stays and vacations.
This can be easily explained by the country’s convenient geographical location as well
as beauty and purity of the Mediterranean nature and mild climate.
During the three years from 2007 to 2010, annual amount of foreign visitors in
Croatia has been fluctuating from 9 to 9.5 million people. The prevailing group of
visitors comes during the “high season” from June to August.
2010 was rather successful year for Croatia from the point of view of tourist arrivals.
According to Minister of Tourism Damir Bajs (2010), July 2010 might have been the
best July ever for Croatian tourism, with its impressive total of 2.7 million visitors.
Croatia has very tight, long-standing relationship with its Western European
neighbours. For more than a millennium (7th to 18th century) some coastal parts of
Croatia belonged to the Republic of Venice. The coastal part of Croatia has also used
to be under the influence of Austro-Hungarian Empire for a long period of time.
During the period of Yugoslavia, Croatia was considered to be one of the most
economically developed and western oriented member state along with Slovenia.
Therefore, it seems that it is the mix of cultural similarities together with the long-
standing common history and beautiful nature that, nowadays, attract Europeans to
Croatia.
30
Composition of demand
FIGURE 12. Top-10 countries visiting Croatia in 2009. Data by MINT 2011a
As shown by Figure 12, more than 76% of visitors came from EU member states. 50%
of all visitors in 2009 came from four key destinations (Germany, Italy, Slovenia and
Austria).
17%
13%
11%
31
Region Traffic by year
KOPRIVNIKO-KRIEVAKA 18.357 18.042 15.592
BJELOVARSKO-BILOGORSKA 14.669 14.776 12.719
PRIMORSKO-GORANSKA 2.247.788 2.214.061 2.205.627
LIKO-SENJSKA 359.635 365.709 386.720
VIROVITIKO-PODRAVSKA 14.415 14.368 14.395
POEŠKO-SLAVONSKA 8.356 8.365 9.630
BRODSKO-POSAVSKA 22.757 24.847 23.118
ZADARSKA 1.072.659 1.102.170 1.049.019
OSJEKO-BARANJSKA 84.724 89.386 78.382
ŠIBENSKO-KNINSKA 820.312 822.879 746.532
VUKOVARSKO-SRIJEMSKA 38.355 39.765 33.828
SPLITSKO-DALMATINSKA 1.731.039 1.746.311 1.657.945
DUBROVAKO-NERETVANSKA 978.402 986.851 957.229
-
32
It is well known that Croatia is a representative of so-called Balkans or countries,
located on the Balkan Peninsula. For good or bad, it is common that people, who
have never visited Croatia, usually suppose that Croatia has many cultural similarities
with its Balkan neighbours (Albania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Bosnia and
Herzegovina). Even though some cultural or linguistic similarities exist, Croatia is one
of the most western oriented countries in the whole region. And this is reflected by
the nature of the tourist traffics the countries receive. For example, while the
prevailing part of the Croatian tourist traffic consists of visitors from four major EU
countries, the Bulgarian tourist traffic consists of an absolutely different cluster of
countries, many of which are non-EU as shown by Figure 13.
FIGURE 13. TOP-10 countries visiting Bulgaria in 2009. (MEET 2011)
18%
12%
n=7 872 805
Life cycle of demand
As shown in Table 1 in 1985, Croatia hosted as many as 10,125,000 visitors. However,
it took the country approximately 15 years since the end of the war to merely
recover this level of annual tourist traffic. It is worth mentioning that in 1985 Croatia
was part of Yugoslavia, and neither highway roads, nor low-cost air transportation
existed. This fact points out that demand for Croatia as a tourist destination has
revived and is in its initial stage of development. This reveals a hidden growth
potential of Croatia as a tourist destination.
TABLE 1. Major tourism indicators in Croatia by MINT 2005, 2010
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010**
Tourist arrivals (in
Overnights (in
Average number of
nights per arrival 6.8 6.7 6.2 5.3 5.5 5.1 5.3
Seasonality of demand
According to the prevailing part of the respondents, short season was considered to
be a determining factor for hotel industry in Croatia (see Appendix 1, Q4-2,4,8 ; Q5-
4,5 ). According to Croatian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS 2007, 21) four months
of the high season in Croatia (June-September) on the average account for 75% of
yearly tourist arrivals. This means that the demand is highly seasonal, which makes it
difficult for entities like hotels to operate profitably. Indeed, according to one of the
respondents only 25-30% of all Croatian hotels are profitable.
34
Role of the government
According to prevailing part of the respondents, Croatian government is not
spending enough on establishing awareness about Croatia as a tourist destination.
Most of the hotel managers, who were interviewed during the research, testified
that many of their guests come for the first time and have very limited knowledge
about the country. (See Appendix 1, Q3)
Despite this negative trend, tourism in Croatia continues to progress and the annual
amount tourist traffic is constantly increasing. The government and local authorities
are constantly improving their efforts to increase general awareness about Croatia
worldwide. These efforts range from funding special promotion agencies (e.g. APIU)
to rather unconventional ideas like renaming one of the inhabited islands
“Facebook” (Croatian Times 2011).
Rivalry
Hotels vs. other types of accommodation
As many other Croatian industries, the tourism industry has not yet fully recovered
from the consequences of the War of Independence from Serbia (1991-1995). The
industry is characterized by poor supply of accommodation. There are few new
developments and majority of units located in outdated, soviet facilities.
35
TABLE 2. Breakdown of accommodation in Croatia 2009 by CBS 2010
Breakdown of accommodation in Croatia, 2009
Accommodation type Amount of Beds Share of
total, %
One star (0,1%) 89
Other 185 109 19,1
Total 969 726 100,0
As can be seen from Table 2 hotels represent only a minor part of total amount of
beds. Private accommodation, such as rooms, flats, apartments and summer houses,
has been and continues to be the most popular accommodation type in Croatia.
According to CBS (2010), private accommodation accounted for almost half of all the
beds available in Croatia in 2009. Moreover, one also should take into account that
these are only official statistics, and it is quite hard to estimate the real amount of
supply from private accommodation segment. While statistics can be quite precise
about the amount of registered hotels and campsites, private accommodation
figures are somewhat vague and are likely to be underestimated to some extent.
36
TABLE 3. Number of beds by type of accommodation, 1985-2009 by CBS 2010
Number of beds by type of accommodation, 1985-2009, in thousands
Year Total Collective Private
1985 820 561 259
1992 576 521 55
1995 649 523 126
2000 759 479 280
2005 909 499 410
2009 969 523 446
According to CBS (2010), during the period of 14 years from 1995 to 2009 total
amount of beds in hotels had been staying at approximately the same level of
523,000 beds. During the same period, amount of available beds in private
accommodation had grown from 126,000 in 1995 to approximately 450,000 in 2009.
(See Table 3.)
This unprecedented growth in the supply of private accommodation means that
hotels are unable to attract tourists, which passes a large part of tourist traffic into
hands of private accommodation suppliers. Given the scale of private
accommodation sector and its rapid development during last 15 years, it nowadays
seems to be an important constraint for the development of the hotel industry. It is
true that staying in a hotel and renting a private villa will provide a different kind of
experience. However, if we are talking about a summer vacation by the sea, these
types of accommodation appear to be quite interchangeable and, consequently, are
competing against each other. Indeed, a private and well-equipped villa with a
swimming pool in front of a beach can offer a great vacation experience. If the villa is
located in amenities of a village or small coastal town (which is usually the case) then
a range of different dining options is guaranteed to the tenants. Renting a villa also
gives a flexibility of having an own kitchen or an outdoor grill, which may seem
attractive for particular segment of tourists.
37
Case: staying in a hotel vs. renting a private villa
It has already been mentioned, that staying in a hotel and renting a private
apartment or villa provide different type of experience. Choosing a coastal
apartment or villa will leave the tourists without important services and facilities, like
24 hour reception, dining & entertainment facilities right in front of your door and
other merits of “all-inclusive” vacation. In addition to that, when dealing with private
accommodation no brand names and established quality standards exist and the
would-be tenants must be picky with their choice. In spite of these facts, it is a
matter of hard fact that most of the tourists in Croatia do go for private
accommodation. It may be illustrative to take a look at typical hotel and private
accommodation offers and compare them as shown by Table 4.
38
TABLE 4. Comparison of a Private Accommodation vs. a Family Hotel
Type Private villa Family hotel Diadora
Location Petrane Petrane
Description Fully equipped villa with a
swimming pool, 20 m from the
sea coast, 600 m from the
town center, nearest
garden with grill.
Internet connection,
family vacations. Several
Residence unit Second floor of the villa
2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
9.htm
http://www.falkensteiner.co
m/en/hotel/diadora/room-
prices-croatia2011.htm
As can be seen from Table 4, private accommodation is significantly cheaper. Thanks
to the fact that the villa is located in close amenities of the city center, there should
be absolutely no problem with dining and shopping. Moreover, the hotel (Diadora) is
nearby, so in case the tenants of the villa will feel like going for a spa or using any
other hotel facility, they can do it for additional charge (just like people who stay in
the hotel). All these facts make the price of the hotel appear too high.
One of the respondents noticed (see Appendix 1, Q4-5):
Private rooms are cheaper, they are not run by professionals, they are only a supplementary activity. Ever since the time of socialism people could construct apartments with relatively low cost investments, so the private accommodation remained from those times. And hotels were questionable because the problem was in the fact that the season was too short, so their profitability was uncertain.
Indeed, private accommodation has a way different cost structure. Virtually all
Croatian people, who live in the coastal part, have some kind of real-estate in
ownership. After the war, the government used to provide abundant finance for
reconstruction of housing sector (see Appendix 1, Q4-6), and citizens were able to
get attractive loans for construction of houses. In addition to that, the government
still does not collect any real-estate tax, meaning that there are no additional costs
except for renovation. This puts private accommodation providers in a very
competitive position against hotels, which have a lot heavier cost structures.
Croatian hotel supply vs. other countries
As compared to countries with well-developed tourism, the hotel capacity in Croatia
seems to be lagging behind. For example, the length of coast on a continental part of
Croatia is 1,770 km, and length of south-eastern coast of Spain (from Cadiz to
Gerona) is about 2,300 km. According to MINT (2009), in 2009 there were
approximately 98,900 beds in hotels in all seven coastal counties or on the average
55 beds per one km of the coast. In contrast, according to INE (2011), in 2010 there
were approximately 545,000 beds in hotels in 11 coastal provinces on the eastern
part of Spanish coast (from Cadiz and up to Gerona). Hence, there are approximately
235 beds in hotels per one km of the south-eastern coast of Spain. This comparison is
quite illustrative.
Competition within the country
Indeed, the level of competition among the hotels in Croatia is significantly lower
than in other countries with developed tourism. While in more developed regions
like Dubrovnik or Istria concentration of hotels is higher, in the rest of the counties
the concentrations is pretty low. For instance, the amount of beds in hotels in Istria
approximately equals the amount of beds in hotels in three central Dalmatian
counties: Lika-Senj, Zadar and Šibenik-Knin. As can be seen on Figure 14 these three
40
Dalmatian counties occupy roughly a half of the whole coast, but represent only
12.2% of total hotel capacity.
FIGURE 14. Breakdown of hotels across the coastal counties in 2009. Data by MINT
2009
41
Firm Strategy and Structure
Croatian hotel industry is still far from its maturity. This can be seen in statistics as
well as in the way how some of the hotels are operated. Unfortunately, it is not
uncommon that hotels are operated with indifference, unprofessionalism, and in
some cases, pure greed. For example, the author had experience of working five
months in one of the typical Croatian hotels. The hotel is located in a coastal town
Zadar.
Case: Kolovare
The name of the hotel is Kolovare and it is a 4-star hotel located by the sea close to
the city center. The hotel was built in 1974 and renovated in 2004. There are 191
rooms including suites and 12 apartments. The hotel offers the following facilities
and services (Kolovare web-page 2011):
car parking
room service
beauty salon
massage parlour
congress hall
rent-a-car service
tourist agency
sports-recreation centre.
Most of the services are paid separately. Nevertheless, prices in the hotel start from
180 EUR per standard double room per night during the high season (July-August).
42
The main segment of guests is business corporate guests and business individual
guests, mostly foreigners. During the summer time, the hotel is also popular with
travel groups and individual travelers. Leisure group travelers usually come from
Spain, Italy, Germany, the USA and Japan.
During her working experience at the reception desk of the hotel, the author could
see in practice how ineffectively a hotel can be operated; the management and staff
seem to be sure that the customers will keep coming anyway. Thanks to the fact that
Kolovare is the only medium sized hotel in the whole city and surroundings, it enjoys
a de-facto monopoly for accommodation services. The market is shared by a couple
of boarding houses, one micro-hotel and Kolovare.
While most of the business visitors did not seem to care about the price their
employers paid for their stay, most of the holidaymakers seemed astonished by the
hotel’s prices. The author noticed that many of the random visitors (those who did
not plan to come to Kolovare) were especially surprised at the prices. In some of such
cases these visitors had no other place to go so they paid, but some just went away.
The condition of the hotel and its equipment was quite poor. Some guests
complained several times about the outdated air-conditioning system, which
sometimes let the temperature in the rooms go down to as low as 14 Celsius. The
floor in the corridors is rickety and the carpets are worn out.
Another problem is the relationship towards employees. According to the Croatian
Labour Law, the employer is obliged to provide an employee with a permanent
working placement in the firm, after the employee successfully works the first three
years. This is the reason, why most of the employees in Kolovare never get an
employment contract for more than one year and after two and a half years are
getting laid off. It is the management team which remains untouched, and other staff
members are constantly shifting. This makes it hard to build a solid team.
To sum up the experience of the author in the hotel, it seemed that the owner of the
hotel was trying to get the most of the outdated asset by raising the prices to the
maximum and reducing the costs to the minimum. This inevitably led to a poor
performance of the hotel and unhappy customers and staff. No doubt that the
situation in the hotel will change dramatically as soon as at least one competing
43
hotels of similar size will open in Zadar. But until then, most visitors of Zadar will end
up visiting Kolovare.
Role of the government
According to one of the respondents, the government and local authorities still holds
ownership of quite many hotels (see Appendix 1, Q4-2,4,6). Not surprisingly, this
leads to inefficient management practices and lack of flexibility. Unfortunately, in
some less developed areas of Croatian coast the prevailing part of hotels is still in
hands of local authorities. For example, Makarska, which is a local center, located in
a picturesque mountainous environment, is almost entirely dominated by
governmentally owned hotels. There are three governmentally owned hotels with
total amount of 730 beds.
Another important issue that was described by one of the respondents was that
Croatian government maintains rather high taxation rates (see Appendix 1,Q3-4 ; Q4-
3). For example, VAT is 10% only for accommodation services in hotels and 22% for
the rest of the services, while, for example, in Cyprus VAT is 5% for all services. This
gives a certain disadvantage to the cost structure of Croatian hotels and makes them
less competitive against other destinations. In addition to that, as noted by one of
the respondents, the government has been quite active in providing cheap and
affordable finance to citizens, willing to build a second house. This could be one of
the reasons, why private accommodation supply has been developing so rapidly
since 1995.
Another major concern is that the governmental system is still pretty bureaucratic
and inefficient. This especially concerns development of new hotels and other
tourism related objects. On one hand, the government is trying to preserve the
nature and control the development of tourism on the coast. But on the other hand,
the governmental system has not yet reached the point when it will be able to
develop tourism sustainable, instead of drowning its development in bureaucracy.
44
4.5 Related and supporting industries
As has already been mentioned in the theoretical part, related and supporting
industries are of special importance for the hotel industry. Normally, it is not the
hotels that attract tourists to particular destination country. It is other attractions,
such as nature, culture, climate, entertainment infrastructure that attract tourists.
While nature, climate and culture are virtually free to exploit, other important
attraction such as appropriate transport infrastructure, entertainment and sports
industries are man-made and require time and investment for development. As
expressed by Williams et al. (2003, 5) tourism in many cases is leisure-related
activity. Therefore, all the industries catering for leisure-related needs of tourists can
be grouped together under one term “leisure infrastructure”. Other significant part
of worldwide tourism is generated by business-related activities. In the same way, all
industries catering for needs of business tourists, can be grouped in “business
infrastructure”.
Leisure infrastructure
Croatian coast can be characterized as underdeveloped in terms of leisure
infrastructure. In spite of the fact that 15 years has already passed since the end of
the war, the development of leisure infrastructure has been quite slow and in most
cases funded by the central and local government. These include national parks of
nature, sports centers, museums and reconstruction and maintenance of ancient
monuments. Nevertheless the development is quite slow and not many private
companies are involved in it. For better or worse, such urban leisure objects like
night clubs, shopping mall, cinemas, and casinos are developing quite slowly.
To get a general outlook of the situation, one can take a look at an up-to-date
satellite image of Croatian coast. Many forests, deserted beaches and tiny villages
can be spotted across virtually the whole coast.
The most developed regions from the point of view of leisure infrastructure are Istria
and Dubrovnik. These two regions look quite different from the rest of the coastal
part and tourism is developing faster there. Istrian Peninsula (or simply Istria) has
always been popular among its closest neighbours – Slovenians, Italians and
Austrians. Istria is especially attractive for Slovenians, who can travel to Istria by car
45
every weekend, thanks to lax border control and good road connection. Another
important fact is that, due to its distant location from Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Serbia, Istria was spared from devastation of the 1991-1995 war. While Dubrovnik
and parts of Dalmatia were occupied by Serbians, Istria remained intact.
Business infrastructure
As well as the leisure infrastructure, facilities for business events are quite
underdeveloped in Croatia. The country has few facilities for large business events,
like conferences or trade shows. While most of the newly constructed hotels on the
coast have conference facilities, they all are suitable only for medium-size corporate
events (usually with some 200-500 seats). During the research, the author could
locate only few conference facilities (Hotel Kvarner, Hotel Rixos Dubrovnik), which
were able to cater for more than 1,000 guests.
Nautical tourism
Nautical tourism is a special segment of tourism in Croatia, which indirectly
contributes to development of the hotel industry.
Annually nautical tourism contributes some 700 mil. EUR in revenues and attracts
thousands of well-off Europeans to Croatia. Only yacht charter companies realize
annually around 25,000 ship-weeks with over 150,000 tourists and more than
1,000,000 overnight stays. (Assetreal 2007.)
Moreover, according to the author’s short enquiry about availability of free berths on
couple of marinas in Zadar and Šibenik region (Marina Dalmacija, Marina Mandalina,
Olive Island Marina) it was discovered that these marinas did not experience virtually
any change decrease in demand since 2008. Prevailing part of the berths on these
marinas are covered with long-term contracts, which is a sign of a high demand.
Archipelago of 1,185 islands of different sizes and shapes makes Croatia ideal place
for sailing. Such a high density of islands and bays is truly unique and makes sailing
experience especially safe and pleasant. One is not going to find anything similar
across the whole Mediterranean.
At the same time, there are only 20,500 berths in 50 marinas in Croatia, which makes
a ratio of approximately 11.5 berths per km of the coast (1,770 km of coast, islands
46
not included). For example, according to Assetreal (2007) there are 64 berths per km
in France and 20 berths per km in Spain.
Marina business seems to be very attractive in Croatia. Moreover, it can be
successfully combined with hotel business.
Air transportation
Despite the fact that the prevailing part of tourists come to Croatia by means of road
transport, air transportation is an important industry for development of hotels
(MINT 2007, 63). One of the respondents emphasized that for 5 star resorts
availability of this mode of transport is crucial (see Appendix 1, Q4-7).
Moreover, due to the shape of the landscape and borders with neighboring
countries, Croatia has some distant areas (e.g. Dubrovnik) which are not easily
accessible by road. For these locations air transportation is crucial.
The role of the government
According to one of the respondents, the government has been quite inactive in
helping hotels to establish relations with international air charter companies. It is a
common practice that central governments or local authorities financially help hotels
in their attempts to negotiate charters to the destination country. However, at this
point Croatian government does not seem to be cooperating much in order to open
new charter lines and, therefore, increase the amount of incoming tourists.
47
5.1 Conclusion
This exploratory survey focused on the hotel industry of Croatia. As it was discussed
in the theoretic background, the hotel industry is a supplementary industry, rather
than an independent one. This is generally due to the fact that people’s urge to
travel is not generated by the hotel industry. Thus, it is a range of tourist attractions,
which in great scale predetermines the success of a hotel industry in a particular
country. From this point of view, Croatia has the extraordinary resources and
attractions: the diverse and pure Mediterranean nature spread across 6,000 km of
the coast and over 1,000 islands. Besides, the country has a rich cultural heritage and
longstanding relationship with its Western-European neighbours. However, as the
current condition of the industry reveals, these factors alone do not make a
successful tourist destination and lucrative spot for the development of hotels. As
the results of the research shows, Croatia has several important drawbacks as an
environment for the development of the hotel industry (see Figure 15).
As discovered during the research the Croatian government has chosen a sustainable
and well-balanced approach to the development of tourism and hotel industry in
particular. All the necessary environment-protection legislation is in place, as well as
a well-functioning system for controlling its implementation. However, the
government has not yet been able to adopt the crucial policies, which would foster
the development of hotels in Croatia. The research uncovered the existence of
inefficient, bureaucratic procedures in obtaining construction permits for the
development of new hotels. Also there is a lack of cooperation from the government
in promotion of the country, as well as heavy taxation and excessive presence of the
government in ownership of hotels and other tourist objects (e.g. marinas). Absence
of new developments puts the existing hotels in a dominating position, which fosters
inefficient management practices and resistance to any change (tourists keep coming
anyway). On the other hand, another major challenge for hotels derives from a short
season and the inability of current industry participants to extend it. The hotel
48
business is further hit by a fierce competition from public accommodation providers,
who operate at low cost and provide a decent level of service.
These drawbacks are the reason why the Croatian hotel industry is still in its initial
stage of development, with the total amounts of beds in the hotels being less than in
a single tourist city in Spain (e.g. Benidorm).
Figure 15 shows the summary of all the researched factors, affecting the hotel
industry in Croatia.
49
FIGURE 15. Hotel industry of Croatia through Porter’s Diamond Model
50
Implementing sustainable development
As Figure 15 shows, the country while having splendid natural resources and a
government which understands the importance of its preservation, has a large set of
problematic areas. However, all these problems can be solved with time. During the
past 15 years the country has been consistently stirring into the right direction,
reviving its political, economic, social and legislative environments. At this point, it
seems that the government will play a major role in future development of tourism
in Croatia. As soon as it is capable of implementing the chosen (sustainable)
development model of tourism, the hotel industry will improve dramatically. But for
the time being, the situation within the industry seems to be a vicious circle. Due to
the fact that bureaucracy and complicated nature protection system hinders
construction of new hotels, the existing ones enjoy monopoly position. This in turns
deteriorates the quality of service and keeps the room prices high. Furthermore,
current inefficient labour legislation treats employees of hotels in a subdue way,
which further deteriorates the quality of service. At the same time the government is
putting pressure on cost structures of the existing hotels by raising high taxes.
Unfortunately, the government does give much to hotels in return. Spending on
promotion of Croatia as a tourist destination is insufficient, as well as efforts to
negotiate more air charters to the country. As a result, heavy cost structure and
short tourist season make profitability of the current hotels questionable. Given the
availability of alternative, competitively priced private accommodation, the hotel
industry at the moment does not appear to have attractive economics.
Future prospects
30 June 2011 the EU-Croatia entrance negotiations were successfully closed. The
country has been scheduled to become a lawful member of the EU by July 2013. The
fact that the country has finally resolved all major political and administrative issues
and is more than halfway through the process of becoming an EU member state,
proves that the governmental system will significantly improve its efficiency in near
future. Moreover, the news about the EU accession is expected to fuel the interest of
foreign investors and increase the amount of available capital (just like in 2005, when
negotiations started). The interest of foreign investors and decrease of bureaucracy
will inevitably lead to the development of tourism and the hotel industry in
51
particular. As the respondents unanimously expressed, the country is not expected
to show any rapid growth in the next five years though (see Appendix 1, Q7). The
author’s opinion is that it is hard, if not impossible, to predict when the hotel
industry will finally start to develop. The result of the research shows that the
country has been moving forward despite numerous headwinds. At this point, EU
accession can become a major tailwind for the development of tourism in Croatia
and, therefore, fuel the development of the hotel industry.
5.2 Discussion of the methodology
The current research question was a challenging one. More importantly, it was the
question, which has not been addressed much by other researchers. This is why the
author did not assume to provide a comprehensive answer to the question. Instead,
the goal of the research was to start researching the issue and provide an easy-to-
follow basis for further inquiries.
The current methodology suited the goal of the research well. Exploratory research
based on a well-known Porter’s theoretical framework allowed the author to
organize and analyze various pieces of primary and secondary data under one easy-
to-understand framework. The diamond model itself seems to be easy to work with.
What is more important is that the model can be easily updated with new or revised
data.
The qualitative nature of the primary data collection also suited well the goal of the
research. Instead of providing quantitative data that could be generalized, the
research provided insights and experience of industry practitioners, which can be
then used as a basis of further quantitative inquiry by other researchers.
52
5.3 Limitations of the research
The primary data collection was limited to only nine interviews and five months of
working experience in one Croatian hotel. This means that the results of the research
shall not be treated as an outcome of a quantitative inquiry. It also shall be noticed
that the prevailing part of respondents were from marketing and sales departments
of hotels. This shaped the results of the research according to perception of this
particular management layer.
Another limitation of the research was scarcity of information in English about the
industry. The author came across various sources (press, official statistics) which
were available only in Croatian language. Even if the author managed to translate
several of these, it is likely that some valuable information (in Croatian language) is
missing from the report due to the language.
5.4 Implications for further research
The results of the current research can be treated by further researchers as a starting
point in their study of the topic. The hypothesis stated by the respondents of the
research can be further studied with use of quantitative methods or statistics. As
long as all of the collected data during the interviews is the opinions of practitioners,
most of the expressed ideas will prove to be relevant and worth a further detailed
study.
It is recommended that the same theoretical framework (the Diamond Model) is
used for further research. This will allow researchers to build on the collected
material, revising it and enhancing the Diamond with every new inquiry. This way
the knowledge can accumulate and always be ready for analysis in a well-known,
established format.
53
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1) Denis Gjergja
2) Leo Pavic
2) Technical Manager (Hotel Kolovare, Zadar)
3) Front office manager (Hotel Kolovare, Zadar)
4) Marketing manager(Hotel Kolovare, Zadar)
5) Zadar county chamber of economy (associate)
6) Sales and Marketing Director (Health resort& hotel Biokovka, Makarska,
owned by local authorities)
7) Financ Department (Hotel Le meridian Lav, near Split, privately owned 5 star
hotel)
9) Marketing Manager (Makarska Hotel group: Meteor ````, Dalmacija```,
Riviera``)
57
Nationality
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) Yes
5) Yes
6) Yes
7) Yes
8) Yes
9) Yes
Question 1
What is the main attraction for tourists in Croatia? What makes them come
here?
1) –
2) Nature (Air, sea, national parks); but nowadays the nature is not smth
outstanding any longer, people want to have smth else in addition to it.
3) Sea
4) Sea
6) Health resort(spas, medical treatment)
58
7) –
9) Sea
Question 2
Can you name some 4 more important attractions for tourists in Croatia? Please, put
them in descending order from the most important to less important.
1) –
2) –
3)
d. Climate (hot weather)
b. old Mediterranean towns starting from Dubrovnik
c. islands
59
Question 3
What do you think Croatia lacks to become a truly popular tourist destination
for Europeans? Explain why?
1) –
2)
a. “Bad marketing” (lack of awareness of Croatia as a tourist destination and in
general as a country)
b. Tourist always wonder why they have not been here before
c. Infrastructure(aqua parks, good restaurants, entertainment)
3) Awareness. Advertising
4) Support from government (taxation)
5) Better organization of tourist offers and commitment and engagement of the
professionals in the sector and local authorities.
6)
a. Still Croatia is positioned in people’s minds as a post-war country
b. Promotion of Croatia as a tourist destination, which is done mostly by
governmental organisations (under ministries of tourism etc.), is slow, ineffective
and inflexible. It seems to the respondent that this is caused not only by
hierarchical(slow, inflexible) structure of those organisation, but also by the
attitude. Government is not putting so much stress on development of
tourism(according to the respondent).
c. Hotels are not doing proper promotion by themselves.
7) There is a need for determining and developing some specific tourist attractions.
Some kind of paradox takes place in the industry: there is huge potential for
different types of tourist attractions(pure nature, rich culture), but all of
them(except pure sea) are unknown by tourists and undeveloped. “Bad
marketing”, inability to develop and sell. “Take an example of Spain- they have
famous Tomatina; we also have tomatoes and narrow streets in Croatia, but
nobody is coming here for Tomatina ”
8)
a. Lack of awareness
b. Help from government (Author: example of Roaring tigers of Asia)
9)
Question 4
According to Croatian Ministry of Tourism, in 2007 hotels and apartment
hotels together accounted for only 12% of total amount of beds available in
Croatia. Private rooms accounted for 44%. The rest of the beds are in camps
(22%) and other minor modes of accommodation.
Why, in Your opinion, hotels in Croatia account for such a small part of total
figure and private rooms are so popular?
1)
a. Overpriced land (huge amount of land is owned by individual persons, who set
prices for their land according to their feelings and wishes, but not according to
real value)
b. Attitude of investors (investors are willing to buy only ready objects, instead of
developing new ones. Therefore they are waiting for somebody else to develop
land for them. The problem is that nobody wants to take the risk to develop the
land)
c. Long procedure of getting necessary permits for construction and land utilization.
Central planning system of managing land to some extent is one of the main
reasons for such slowdown.
2)
a. “Hotels are not profitable” (Hotels are a way (approximately twice) more
expensive, than, for example, private apartments, which are competing with
hotels).
b. Hotels are not working efficiently (a lot of staff)
c. Government (taxation is heavy)
d. Seasonality (2-3 hot months per year)
3)
a. Only 25% - 30% of hotels in Croatia are profitable, according to Zagreb conference
in 2009.
b. Low price/value ratio in hotel, compared to Turkey, Greece.
c. Taxation (VAT is 10% only for accommodation service in hotel, 22% for the rest of
the services; in Cyprus 5% for all services)
d. Margins are higher, than in competing countries (100% in Cyprus, 200% in
Croatia)
4)
c. Privatisation (1995-) Bad management by owners of hotels
5) Private rooms are so popular because ever since the time of socialism people
could construct apartments with relat